The present invention relates to alarm systems and, more particularly, but not exclusively to an alarm notification system utilizing a cellular phone.
Home, business and car alarms have become commonplace.
For example, the very attribute that makes automobiles and similar transportation systems so useful, also makes such transportation systems popular targets for thieves. Within a few short minutes of breaking into an automobile, a thief can take the vehicle miles away in any direction, delivering the vehicle to any point where it can be sold, cut into parts for resale, or used in the commission of a crime.
A rapid increase in the rate of automobile theft created a demand for improved methods of protecting vehicles. Consequently, a vast array of products has offered a wide range of options in responding to a variety of stimuli. Typical events detected by security unit sensors include penetration of the vehicle's physical perimeter, breaking of glass, attempts to activate the engine of the vehicle, the presence of persons within a set distance from the vehicle, and the application of physical force to the vehicle's exterior.
Conventional Alarm systems use sensors range from microphones to infra-red proximity and motion detectors, as well as conventional switches that can detect the opening of a door. Responses range from disabling the engine of the vehicle to a simulated voice advising persons to step away from the vehicle. The most common feature used to alert the owner of an automobile to a potential problem is the audible siren, sometimes able to be heard by persons standing several hundred yards away from the vehicle.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram schematically illustrating an alarm system, according to prior art.
The conventional alarm system of FIG. 1 includes a power source 101, say a car's battery, and a central alarm unit 102 which is electrically powered by the power source 101. The conventional system of FIG. 1 further includes an alarm siren 103 (say a buzzer or a speaker), as known in the art.
The conventional alarm system of FIG. 1 further includes sensors 108, for detecting an intrusion attempt, say an attempt to break into a car.
The sensors may include, but are not limited to: motion sensors, passive infrared detectors, magnetic reed switches, glass break detectors, seismic sensors, smoke detectors, fire sensors, hold up burglar system sensors, etc., as known in the art.
When the attempt to break into the car is detected using the sensors 108, the central alarm unit 102 electrically connects the alarm siren 103 to the power source 101, and the alarm siren 103 goes off.
Initially, the activation of an alert siren on an automobile attracted tremendous attention to the vehicle and any person standing near the vehicle. It briefly appeared that siren alarm technology would successfully deter the theft of vehicles equipped with security units, but problems developed.
Users, intent on simply moving the car a short distance, forget to disable the security unit before activating the ignition and soon discovered that the ignition was disabled or an audible alarm was triggered. Security systems designed to respond to the application of physical force to a vehicle responded to the low-frequency sound emission from jet aircraft, large-block automobile engines, or planned, innocuous explosions in the vicinity of the vehicle. Sensors designed to detect the sound of broken glass responded instead to the sound of music played loudly in nearby vehicles.
As vehicles carrying security units proliferated, the sound of needlessly activated alarms began to annoy the population at large. Consequently, people grew intolerant of the constant whine of audible alarms attached to security units.
The problem of inappropriately activated alarms runs deeper than mere annoyance. As the sound of audible alarms grew ubiquitous, people became so desensitized to the sound as to be willing to ignore it. Like the boy who cried wolf, no one took seriously the whining of an alarm in a parking lot, and thieves soon learned that, even if an alarm were tripped, persons within earshot would assume a false alarm and would not bother to investigate.
Alarms soon lost most of their usefulness as devices that would attract the attention of nearby persons. Worse still, people began frequently disabling their security units in order to prevent the disturbance of their neighbors. People with loud interior speakers attached to their alarms began to disable them to prevent their own annoyance. Any hope for the use of security units as an effective deterrent to the theft of automobiles was lost.
The electronics industry soon responded with more configurable security units, but the process of configuration proved too complicated for the average user, and was frequently forgotten, and involved more guesswork than systematic assessment of the risks from which a automobile required protection at any given location.